The only
means of transportation being a horse and cart , Kingsclere was almost
a self supporting community. Only the commodities which really could
not be produced in and around the village were purchased from outside.

The large houses gave employment to both men and women. Elm Grove employed
seven gardeners as well as a number of girls inside the house. In addition
to employing a number of residents in the house or to live in the cottages,
indirect employment was given by having local tradesmen call with stores
for the house. The local saddler and blacksmith was helped in this way
by Park House Stables. The late Mrs Grace Neal said how difficult it
would have been for the village to have carried on without the stables.
At the end of the 19th century when the late Mr Tom Wellman (Snr) was a blacksmith,
he was up at 3 a.m. sometimes having a four mile walk to be at a farm
by 6 a.m. to shoe the horses. The working week was from 6 a.m. to 6
p.m. Monday to Friday and until 4 p.m. on Saturday, a 70 hour week for
18/- (90p)

The brewery, rope-works, four mills, two blacksmiths shops and a tannery
all gave employment to the village as well as a host of farms. Timber
was sawn in Parsonage Yard by hand and later by steam engine in a pit.
The skins of hide from cattle were tanned in North Street. Mr Bennet
who lived in Union Lane was a skilled man at the rope works, off George
Street, he made pig nets, halters and plough reins. One day the authors
uncle, Garrie Foster, was talking to him and said “Your plough
reins are no good for me, they’re tapered down just where the
wear comes along the back on the horse.” “Can make them
for you just as you want them”, came the reply and after that
he did just that.

A number of people took in washing to help supplement the meagre wages,
one laundry employing eople was at 5 North Street. Shops gave employment
to dressmakers and assistants. There were two shoe repairers and at
one time show or boots could actually be made in the village. Priors
shop in Swan Street, sold everything including bread, coal, china, hay
to the army at Aldershot and exported hams to France. They sold twopenny
cakes shaped like flower pots which were sometimes used as birthday
cakes.

Women collected flints in a quarter measure from the Downs and were
paid by the cubic yard. In the summer time they were collected from
Cannon Heath, Polhampton Lodge and Frost Hill and taken by stem engine
to Union Lane where they were stored until required for road repairs.
In winter time soil from the banks with plenty of water and flints were
mixed together and placed on the roadway then a steam roller went over
it to effect a repair. Sand was placed each side of Park House under
the instruction of the trainer whilst the roads on the downs were swept
daily.

It was a picturesque sight standing on one of the hills where as many
as 40 teams of horses could be seen drawing the ploughs and other implements.
Even more so at harvest time when the horses were pulling the binders
as the golden sheaves fell to the ground.
Those wishing to help at harvest time used to meet at The Pound (at
the bottom of Bear Hill), where a man wearing gold earrings was in charge
of the party and the practice was to proceed to the harvest fields beside
the Winchester Road. In 1900 children were paid 1/- per day and if they
did not do as they were told the man in charge would not hesitate to
use his whip.

After the binder had cut the corn the labourers placed six of the sheaves
together with the tied strings on the inside to allow the rain to run
off the straw. The corn was considered to be ready for carting when
it had stood in the shocks for three clear Sundays, although the weather
had a lot to do with the timing. Alas I (the author) can remember seeing
green shoots appearing from the ears of corn in a wet season. After
the corn had been carted it was custom for the women to go gleaning
the stray ears of corn to take home. The late Mrs Alice Dollery’s
family used to glean, tying the ears to make a sheaf. After it was taken
home her Mother used to thresh it by banging it on the cement. The oats
were for the horse, while the wheat was taken to my Grandfather at Lower
Mill, who ground it to flour, which lasted the year through for bread
and lardy cakes.

At Newbury Fair, a familiar sight was farmers hiring men for the coming
year. The on the lapels of their coats were either pieces of corn or
horses hair indicating whether they were cowmen or carters. During the
early 1800’s a shepherd received £9 9s. annually, a carter
£9, under carter £4 10s., boys £2, maids £5,
under maids £4 while casual rates at harvesting were about 1/-
per day for men, 6d for women and 4d for a daily women. By 1867 a farm
labourer received 6/- a week and £4 extra for harvest. There was
no such thing as overtime. By the early 1900’s wages had risen,
one man left his employment to work for my grandfather for an extra
shilling making it 11/- per week.

Perhaps the farm labourer was lucky in having a brewery on his doorstep
because farmers did provide their men with beer, which was taken to
the field by wagon and horses. The smaller barrels were hung on the
horses collar.

Most farmers made butter. As there were no refrigerators, my Mother
used to get up at 6 a.m. during the summer to churn the cream into butter
before temperatures became too high. The cream was placed in a bucket
and lowered down into the well for a few hours to keep it cool. She
used to walk round the village delivering it to her customers.

Mrs Alice Dollery lived at the Star Farm. When her parents killed a
pig joint were sold in the village for 3/-. Rabbits were shot and sold
for 6d. and 9d. each. Milk could be purchased straight from the farms.
As a girl Mrs Eddie Nash used to earn a penny by collecting milk each
day from Mr Garrett’s farm in Newbury Road and taking it to Mr
Charles Stevens at the School House. I remember up to the early 1940’s
Lassie Lawrence cycling round with milk which she sold from the churn.

Wages and prices were both low. My Grandfather bought a truck load of
coal which was collected from Burghclere Station by horse and wagon
in July of one year for 26/- a ton. Rents were about 1/6 or 2/6 a week.
A pound of chocolates were 7d., six aniseed balls a farthing, beer 2d
a pint and cider 1d. A whole cheese weighing 12lbs was only 3/-
Local historian, the late Dr Guyon Bull, reported in the Kingsclere
News (March 1963) that from 1771 onwards half the people who died in
Kingsclere were either farmers or farm labourers. In the 1841 census
in the Dell alone there were 34 agricultural Labourers. How this has
changed! Much of the farmland has been built upon, Heatheralls, Tower
Hill (Cedar Drive), Strokins Meadow, Bushnells Field and the allotments
(Longcroft Road), Elm Grove (Thornley, Fawconer and Ash Grove), Yew
Treet Farm (Poveys Mead), Field Gate and Old House (The Paddock), Fox
Grove Farm (Foxes Lane) and still being built Wellmans Meadow and Hardy’s
Field with this loss of agricultural land and with mechanisation less
people are required to till the soil.

Our village has changed during the 20th Century perhaps more than any
other time. It was fortunate that 40 types of employment were available
in and around the village. With four mills closed, the brewery, rope
works, tannery, sawmill and the closing of the Kingsclere Hospital and
the amalgamation of the KWRDC with the Basingstoke Council meant another
111 people had to work outside the village.

Before the age of the motor car people had to either walk to work or
cycle. Now with so many families having access to their own transport
or travelling by service bus, working further away from home or even
commuting daily to London causes no problems.